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Abigail Unger
Dr. Cecelia Musselman
ENGW 1111
9 September 2016
Questioning the Unquestioned
Unquestioned Assumptions, an excerpt from Ursula K. Le Guins collection The Wave in
the Mind, is a hypocritical critique on the intended audiences among works of literature. Le Guin
focuses on five unquestioned assumptions that she has found authors to make about their
audiences, ranging from sex to age to nationality. She criticizes the way in which authors orient
their characters, plot, and writing technique in order to appeal to their assumed audience.
Throughout her essay, Le Guin presents many valid arguments about homophobia, sexism, and
unfair representation in literature and society.
Le Guin begins by establishing the idea that readers are often grouped into categories
based on the authors experiences and perceptions of the world. She explains that many authors
incorporate the idea of us versus them, arguing that many works of fiction are focused on the
privileged or dominant groups of society because they satisfy the authors perceptions and
personal experiences with the world (Le Guin 240-241). She goes on to list the five main
assumptions they make about their audience and the way in which these assumptions are
reflected in their writing. As a young woman, I most closely identified with her claim that fiction
authors often assume their audiences are men. Timeless novels such as The Great Gatsby by F.
Scott Fitzgerald, focus on predominantly male protagonists and describe women only in their
relation to mena mother, sister, love interest, etc. While I believe it is human nature to craft a
character that an author can personally relate to, resulting in many male writers choosing a
masculine point of view, there is no excuse to portray women in any way less than equal to men.

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Women authors are more than capable of taking on the mind frame of a male protagonist. In fact,
JK Rowling, one of the most successful authors of this generation does so in the bestselling
Harry Potter series. Writers of every gender should be challenged to portray women (as well as
people of other races, sexualities, religions, ages, etc.) with equality.
Along the same lines, Le Guin argues that novels focused on majorities such as
characters who are white, straight, male, or young, are rarely noticed for their character qualities.
However, reviewers will often say the book is about a certain demographic if the main characters
are minoritiesblack, gay, female, or young (Le Guin 242). Ive found that this idea is most
evident in modern works of literature. New-age novels such as The Hunger Games by Suzanne
Collins and Divergent by Veronica Roth are popular among my group of friends from high
schoola group that is composed of all genders. However, reviewers praise such novels
specifically for their strong female heroines and attractive love interests, reflecting the misogyny
and sexism prevalent in modern society. Similarly, Le Guin points out that a majority of fictional
literature is directed towards people who are assumed to be white, straight, and Christian (Le
Guin 242-243). I have found this to be true in a number of novels, such as The Chronicles of
Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, which is advertised as a family story for everyone but is essentially
a retelling of the life of Jesus. Appealing to these majority audiences can result in the ostracism
and unfair representation of those who do not fall into the realm of us.
This problem is directly related to society and the perceptions fostered in its members. As
a young, white, Christian female, I belong to more majority groups than not. Because a good
majority of those in the United States share most of these attributes, I sometimes find myself
prone to drawing my own unquestioned assumptions, such as automatically assuming everyone I
meet celebrates Christmas or Easter. Authors are susceptible to the same thinking, as Le Guin

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points out, basing what they write on what they know (Le Guin 240). When I first read Le Guins
critique I found myself cheering her on, thinking, Yes! Thats exactly how it is! How can
authors be so ignorant? Her points seemed so valid and obvious that I was dumbfounded as to
how authors could write with such oblivious prejudice. However, after attempting to adopt the
perspective of one of the authors in question, I found myself seeing the other side of the story.
Literature is defined by the era in which it is written. Thus, I feel some of Le Guins
examples are a bit dated. While they emphasize her points, none of them were published within
the last seventy-five years. When Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick few people believed there
was anything wrong with whale hunting; now its considered inhumane and is rarely practiced.
Literature develops as society does and, in some cases, can even contribute to this development.
A writer can most effectively comment on and affect social change when catering to the
perspective of the powerful. Mark Twain wouldve had trouble humanizing Jim and
commenting on the wickedness of slavery in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by writing
from the slave perspective. Le Guin makes valid arguments in highlighting the prejudice that
stems from writing with unquestioned assumptions for a certain demographic, but catering to ingroups can be almost unavoidable due to literatures reflection of society. It is up to the author to
be aware of these perceptions and use his or her writing to incite change.
Even authors who are well aware of the prejudice of unquestioned assumptions can fall
victim to them. Le Guin, herself, implies that her audience shares her views on literature and,
thus, belongs to her personal in-group. She hints at this idea throughout Unquestioned
Assumptions, inciting her audience to rally behind her against them, the authors of the
literature in question. By using inclusive we phrases like a conspiracy by bleeding heart
liberals to keep us ordinary folk from talking, (Le Guin 241) she establishes an unspoken

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relationship with the reader, essentially saying, I am one of you. We are a unit. This leaves me
questioning her motives. Is she catering to those allied against authors who make unquestioned
assumptions? Is she assuming that her readers fall into one of the categories of minorities that are
often overlooked by fiction writers and, thus, agree that they are not fairly represented in
literature? If so, Le Guins critique takes on a hypocritical quality, as she criticizes others for
falling into the mistakes that she is making while failing to offer any solutions to rectify these
faults.
Perhaps, it is impossible for an author to not make at least a few assumptions about his or
her audience. After all, I have found these assumptions to be based off of personal experiences
and the bounds of society. I believe Le Guin uses this ironic hypocrisy reflected in her essay and
ultimate impossibility of completely avoiding unquestioned assumptions as a ploy to
demonstrate her argument that unquestioned assumptions are real and are a problem in writing.

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Works Cited
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Le Guin, Urusla K. The Wave in the Mind: Unquestioned Assumptions. Boston: Shambhala,
2004. Web. 13. Sept. 2016
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Tom Sawyer
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins